Anyway, since lately I seem to do nothing but look up POTC: DMC-related trivia, I thought I'd try to find out who the basis was for Bill Nighy's nefarious cephalopod-person, Davy Jones. Trouble is, no one knows where the original "Davy Jones" (or for that matter his locker) came from:

One legend suggests that a particularly fiendish pub owner named David Jones used to incapacitate hapless drinkers in his ale locker and send them off aboard ships. ...

[Another] take on the issue: Davy is a bastardization of Duffy, the West Indian term for ghost. Jones comes from Jonah, the prophet who spent a few uncomfortable days lodged in the GI tract of a whale. ...

Duffer Jones was a notoriously myopic sailor who often found himself overboard. Davy could also come from the horned one himself, the Devil. The shortest sailor on board usually impersonates him during the [Navy's] Crossing of the Line, a bizarre naval cross-dressing ceremony. ...

And finally, we were happy to read that [there is no] link between the phrase and Davy Jones of the Monkees.

However, I would like to note that there is at least one POTC character who likes to monkey around.